RECALL

Outpost Prepared Foods & Bakery Recall

We greatly appreciate the support and encouragement you’ve provided us over the past week as we continue our quest to identify the source of the issues identified in the recall on August 23.

A number of milestones have occurred over the past week that we want you to know about:

On August 27 the state Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) returned to our central kitchen facility to conduct additional testing in the kitchen environment and to test additional products that were made in the central kitchen and not sold after the recall. We received those results on September 4.

- Of the 71 total environmental swabs/samples taken from kitchen equipment and

surfaces, NO Salmonella bacteria was detected.

- Of the 27 total food products tested by the State, NO Salmonella bacteria was

detected.

On August 29 we met with a Microbiologist and Food Safety expert and decided to retain his services to advise us going forward.

We have deployed a number of our central kitchen Garde Manger, cooks, and bakers to each of our stores to produce some of your favorite Outpost items directly from those locations. Café employees at each store are also ramping up the selection of sandwiches, salads, hot bar and bakery items made available.

While all of these steps are positive, our central kitchen facility remains temporarily closed. Because we are not producing our regular volume of food to sell in our stores and to our wholesale accounts, our sales have dropped. And because we were not able to deploy all 60 employees from our central kitchen facility to our store locations, we have been forced to lay off some of those workers.

You may imagine that all of these circumstances combined have been very challenging. We need your support and patronage to continue to recover and to keep your co-op strong. I’ve personally decided to cook more meals from scratch rather than eat out, in order to patronize Outpost more frequently. Whatever choice you can make to support us at this time, is greatly appreciated.

Pam Mehnert

General Manager

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Dear Owners and Patrons of Outpost,

To continue the transparency and flow of information we’ve already provided I’m here to give you an update on the recall announced last Friday.

We were surprised to learn that the Wisconsin Department of Health has reported illness in four cases from March – May 2019, with the Salmonella strain found in samples from our central kitchen facility in Bay View. We were notified of this information on August 27.

Our recall of prepared foods and bakery products dating back to August 19 was based on positive tests for the Salmonella bacteria that were taken on August 13 and given to Outpost on August 24. We take this situation very seriously and are responding with urgency to identify the source of the bacteria. Additional sampling has occurred by the State and we have hired a microbiologist and food safety expert to assist in our investigation. In the meantime, our central kitchen facility in Bay View remains closed; all store locations remain open. We continue to work with health officials during this process and are focused on establishing the steps necessary to assure we continue to meet the standards our owners and customers expect from us.

We have been operating our central kitchen facility for 14 years without serious incident and we are saddened to hear of any illnesses reported.

If you show any symptoms of illness that you believe is a result of products purchased at Outpost, you should contact your local health professional.

All of us at Outpost sincerely thank you for your continued support and patronage. Your support right now, in any way you can, keeps our employees working and our co-op family strong.

Sincerely,

Pam Mehnert, General Manager

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

More testing was conducted in our central kitchen production facility today by the Wisconsin Department of Trade and Consumer Protection. We continue to work with them on resolving the source of the contamination.

Outpost is committed to food safety and quality in all of our operations. We have hired a microbiologist food safety expert and have enlisted the aid of the National Co-op Grocers’ food safety and regulations consultant. These professionals will help us to meet our food safety goals.

On Friday afternoon, August 23, the state inspector who is onsite daily, and assigned to oversee production at our central kitchen, gave us a “hold order” restricting us from producing Outpost made prepared foods and bakery products from that facility. We were notified to cease production because a strain of salmonella was found in a sample provided to the state inspector for testing. It was unclear where the pathogen came from.

Notices of the recall were posted in the store and all food included in the recall was removed from stores as well as wholesale accounts.

Our customers were notified through email, social media and via our website

Local media was notified

We established a team to be on call to receive and respond to any inquiries

On Sunday, August 25, we posted a complete list of all items included in the recall to the recall page on our website. (see below)

Over the weekend, we have heard from Outpost owners and customers relating questions about which products were recalled, what information we knew, and when we would have their favorite products in stock again.

Since the initial notification on Friday afternoon, we have received no further communication or information from the state, including any inspection reports. Details on the “insanitary conditions” mentioned by the state in its media report have not yet been provided to us.

On Friday, our management team personally inspected each store café and meat department to make sure all standard food safety sanitation procedures remain in place. On Friday, our Bay View store location was inspected by the City of Milwaukee and was given an A rating.

On Monday, August 26, the state inspector will return with a detailed report on what they found. Once this information is in hand by Outpost, we can then begin to seek out proper remediation and steps to get our food production at our central kitchen back online and open.

We will continue to provide regular and timely updates of our progress. Our store cafes are open and making sandwiches, as well as hot bar and salad bar features, so we can continue to provide delicious store-made food to our owners and shoppers. Additionally, we will be adding other quality vendors to expand our fresh food offerings at this time.

Thank you for your continued support and patronage!

Friday, August 23, 2019

The quality and safety of our products is paramount to who we are and what we do at Outpost Natural Foods Co-op. Out of an abundance of caution, we are recalling certain products made at our central production facility, which is located at the same address, but separate from our Bay View store.

Sample batches for the State Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection tested positive for Salmonella bacteria. The ready-to-eat products affected are: cold salads, pizzas, wraps, ready-to-heat entrees such as burritos, pot pies, savory turnovers, select hot bar items and Outpost labeled bakery items. Please see below for a comprehensive list of items, by category. We don’t know at this time if the positive test is the result of purchased ingredients or something at the facility.

We are following the DATCP directive and temporarily stopping production out of the central kitchen until we determine the origin.

Any of the products mentioned above and purchased at Outpost between August 19, 2019 and August 23, 2019, should be discarded or returned to any Outpost location for a refund or credit.

This recall does not impact any food produced at our individual store locations.

This recall does not impact any meat sales or production at our stores.

All stores are open for business.

We apologize for any inconvenience and will keep you posted on further developments.